Dear Hope, In some patients who have received radiation therapy for a prior cancer, the bone marrow is damaged by the treatment itself, resulting in MDS, and this is called secondary MDS. Secondary MDS occurs in a minority of patients treated with these drugs but higher cumulative doses can increase the chances of its development. Patients with secondary MDS generally have a worse prognosis compared to MDS patients who have no prior exposure to radiation (“de novo MDS”). Because MDS typically develops at least 5-10 years after treatment with radiation and because your father has low risk MDS, I believe he has de Novo MDS. What has his treating hematologist determined?
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